1. Technical Field
The present application relates to a beverage bottling plant for filling bottles with a liquid beverage material and a method and device for the treatment of bottles and containers to be filled.
2. Background Information
A beverage bottling plant for filling bottles with a liquid beverage filling material can possibly comprise a beverage filling machine with a plurality of beverage filling positions, each beverage filling position having a beverage filling device for filling bottles with liquid beverage filling material. The filling devices may have an apparatus designed to introduce a predetermined volume of liquid beverage filling material into the interior of bottles to a substantially predetermined level of liquid beverage filling material. The apparatus designed to introduce a predetermined flow of liquid beverage filling material further comprises an apparatus that is designed to terminate the filling of the beverage bottles upon the liquid beverage filling material reaching the predetermined level in bottles. There may also be provided a conveyer arrangement that is designed to move bottles, for example, from an inspecting machine to the filling machine. Upon filling, a closing station closes the filled bottles. There may further be provided a conveyer arrangement configured to transfer filled bottles from the filling machine to the closing station. Bottles may be labeled in a labeling station, the labeling station having a conveyer arrangement to receive bottles and to output bottles. The closing station and the labeling station may be connected by a corresponding conveyer arrangement.
In the beverage industry, for example, e.g. for the bottling of beverages in bottles or similar containers, it is frequently necessary to sterilize these containers, at least on their interior surfaces, prior to bottling to achieve the required sterility and thus the shelf life of the bottled product.
One process that is widely used is hydrogen peroxide sterilization. In these methods, liquid hydrogen peroxide, for example, is finely atomized and mixed with a current of air, whereby the air is generally a current of sterile air. Then this hydrogen peroxide-air mixture is fed to a vaporizer in which any hydrogen peroxide that is still liquid is completely vaporized. Then this mixture of vapor and air is introduced into the containers to be sterilized, where the hydrogen peroxide immediately condenses on the cold interior walls of the container, where it forms a uniform liquid film. For the subsequent activation of the hydrogen peroxide, i.e. to initiate the decomposition of the hydrogen peroxide, it is necessary to heat it to a specified temperature, or to add a specified amount of heat to it, which as a rule is transferred to the hydrogen peroxide by means of an activation medium. In most cases, this activation medium is sterile warm air that is injected into the containers and has been heated to the temperature required for the activation of the hydrogen peroxide.
During the decomposition process, the hydrogen peroxide decomposes into water and free radicals, namely atomic oxygen O and HO groups which essentially perform the actual sterilization. After the conclusion of the sterilization, the containers are blown out by means of rinsing air and/or dry air and dried.
Because the rate of decomposition of the hydrogen peroxide increases superproportionally as the activation temperature increases, as a result of which significant reductions of the cycle times can be achieved, it is theoretically desirable to work at the highest possible temperatures.
Especially with bottles or containers made of plastic, for example PET bottles or containers, an additional problem is that an overheating of these containers above a critical temperature or boundary temperature leads to the destruction or deformation of the containers, and must therefore be avoided throughout the sterilization process.